Marketing vs. Branding. What’s the Difference?

Sometimes posts need to be tweaked, and South Korean spammers need to be stopped. It’s for those reasons that I present to you a revised version of an oldie but goodie blog post: Marketing vs. Branding. What’s the Difference?

Take 2

Entrepreneurs and business owners are the gutsiest, most knowledgeable people around. When they start their businesses, it’s because they know how to do what they do. When they come across stuff they don’t know about, however, they count on those who have a clue about said stuff to lend a hand. And, while I don’t have a clue about a lot of things, I do have a clue about marketing vs. branding differences!

For today’s blog, just to make your lives a bit easier, I’m going to type about the differences between branding and marketing. So, sit back, grab a delectable beverage, and let’s see if I can keep you from thinking I write a whole lotta lame sauce.

In a nutshell, branding is figuring out why your business is, who your business is, and what your business does. Marketing is figuring out how to use that information to make sure your target market knows about your business.

Because we like to teach by example, we’ll use some of our stuff.

Mission Statement

The world is broken, and we believe entrepreneurs are the only ones who can fix it. But they’ll never get that chance if nobody cares about their brands. So, with a little bit o’ nuttiness, a little bit o’ research, and a lotta bit o’ guts, it’s our job to make people care.

Figuring out our mission statement was part of the branding process. Now, let’s say we decide to tweet it out to our followers, upload an Instagram pic of it, and post it on Facebook. That’s marketing. The branding step was coming up with the mission statement. The marketing step was getting it out to our target market.

Differences

Our strongest difference, the one that makes us relatable, is why we brand. The reason being my parents owned a business, and sacrificed a lot to put my sister and I through private schools. Because of that, they weren’t able to lead the lives they deserved to lead. My dream was to retire them, but then my dad died. I don’t want other business owners to not live fantastic lives. And, while I know branding wouldn’t have helped my dad live longer, I know it would’ve given he and mom a much better quality of life while he was with us.

Now, that’s not there to bum you out. It’s there to show you how crucial a “why” is to your business’ DNA. It’s a huge part of who Mayniax Branding is. Like I typed earlier, that’s the part people can relate to. And oftentimes, that’s the only difference between what you do and what your competition does.

Another big difference is that we’re the only pure branding team in Washtenaw County, and one of a very few in Southeast Michigan. That difference is the one someone may use to convince a higher-up that they should hire us. To find out why that’s important click 3 Huge Reasons You Want Us As Your Branding Team!

Now, all of that was branding. There’s some why, who, and what in there. To market the why, who, and what, we write blogs about those things, as well as send out newsletters, and attend networking and social events. Again, branding is your why, who, and what. Marketing is your how.

Design

We wrote a blog detailing exactly why we feel the way we do about logos. Long story short: your logo should be red and / or red and white, though blue and / or blue and white, or blue and black, is also acceptable.You can read why we think that by clicking Do People Forget About Your Brand Because Your Logo Sucks?

Other design elements we use are black and gray as background colors, and white as text. Because we live in Ann Arbor and are avid University of Michigan fans, we also had to make sure our colors didn’t look anything like that one place’s in Columbus.

Figuring out our look is part of our brand. And, like everything else above, it’s done with strategy in mind. Everything we send out – all of our social media pages, even the colors in this blog post – is marketing. The design’s part of our brand, but every time you see it, it’s marketing.

Differences? Yes. Enemies? No.

In our view, your brand is the most important part of your business. Forgetting to brand, but remembering to market, is like sending house party invitations without having the house. This isn’t to downplay marketing. Once your brand and brand strategy are figured out, that’s it. Everything you do from there on out is marketing to the brand.

Peter Drucker, the granddad of business consulting, once said, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” We couldn’t agree more. After all, the man was wise, and also has the most number of “likes” on our Instagram feed.*

And I’m a little jealous about that.

*he doesn’t anymore! This pic does! Which we’re still scratching our heads about.

Until next time, have a blast, aaannd…

Stay gutsy, gang!

The world is broken, and we believe only entrepreneurs can fix it. But they’ll never get that chance if no one cares about their brands. So, with a little bit o’ nuttiness, a little bit o’ research, and a lotta bit o’ guts, it’s our job to make people care.

Wanna set up a happy fun time chat with Ann Arbor’s favorite branding team? Then click here, fill out the form, and we’ll get back to ya!